Llewellyn's 2019 Sabbats Almanac by Michael Furie

Author:Michael Furie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: llewellyn sabbats almanac;llewellyn sabbats almanac;llewellyn sabbats almanac;2019 sabbats;2019 sabbats almanac;sabbats almanac;sabbat almanac;sabbats;llewellyn's sabbat almanac;llewellyn's sabbats almanac;almanac;2019 almanac;2019 almanacs;CVR09132017
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2018-07-30T13:38:36+00:00

The Great Mother:

Queen of May

Suzanne Ress

When I open my front door early in the morning at the start of May, I hear the music of many dozens of birds, singing while they busily work to collect food for their newly hatched young. I see the bright green grass in the pastures, soft and sweet, it seems to grow from one hour of the day to the next. And I smell the honey-scented perfume of the black locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia) blossoming throughout the surrounding woods. This lovely springtime fragrance lures millions of honeybees to gather the copious nectar of the trees’ racemes of white flowers. Already at sunup I hear the bees happily buzzing in the trees.

The word Beltane comes from old Gaelic and means “blazing fire,” for May Eve (April 30) and May Day (May 1) was a major festival time for our ancient Celtic predecessors, and it was a fire festival. Great bonfires were lit on the evening of April 30th and fed to burn through the night and into the next day. Sometimes animals were lead between two fires, for it was believed that the heat and smoke would purify them and increase their fertility, as it did the land. A few brave humans jumped over or ran between the fires for the same reasons.

Beltane was second in importance only to Samhain in most of the Celtic world. In parts of Wales, May 1st (Calan Mai) was even more important than Samhain. The Welsh believed that on that day a doorway opened into fairyland. The Welsh were the probable originators of the May pole dance tradition, while the rest of the Iron Age Celtic tribes were still dancing deasil around the bonfire.

Beltane was, and still is, a solar festival celebrating birth, fertility, and the blossoming forth of all life, represented symbolically by the union of the great Mother with the sun god at this beautiful time of year.

The ancient Greeks worshipped the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, virginity, and childbirth in the name and form of Artemis. Many of the ornaments, statuettes, and carvings that archaeologists have found that were connected to the Artemis cult took the form of a bee, or a female head on a bee’s body. The Greeks believed that honey came down from heaven onto flowers and trees to be collected by bees, the messengers of souls.

The Beltane Buzz

On the island of Crete, in ancient times, the father of the nymphs who raised Zeus was called Melisseus which means “the bee man”. Melissa (literally, “bee”) was one of the nymphs who raised Zeus, feeding him on milk and honey. It was believed that the muses and the bees brought the gifts of song and poetry to humankind, while honey mead brought song and prophecy. Nectar and ambrosia, the food and drink of the gods, were names for mead and honey.

One day, in late April or early May, while the black locust bloomed everywhere, I lay down on an outdoor garden bench to rest for a few minutes after lunch.

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